A disturbing video showing the body of a woman hanging from a balcony is going viral with a false claim that Bangladeshi Muslims killed a trans person in Gurugram's Dharampur, Sector 108 area and hanged her body from the balcony.
BOOM spoke to Gurugram West ACP Shiv Archan who confirmed the claim to be false. Archan refuted any communal angle to the incident and said that the transperson died by suicide.
In the 1 minute 3 seconds-long video, some people can be seen recording the scene of a dead body hanging from the balcony of a multi-story building.
ISKCON Kolkata vice president Radharamn Das tweeted the video with a caption saying, "Bangladeshi Peacefulls invited a transgender & brutally killed him in a house in Gurgaon & hanged the dead body from the balcony. All the Jihadi tenants living in the rented house are absconding. Many Bangladeshis peacefull's are living illegally in Dharampur village in Gurgaon." (sic)
BOOM has fact-checked Das for sharing communally charged misinformation in the past as well.
Click here to view the tweet.
Pro-Hindutva outlet Sudarshan News's Sagar Kumar also tweeted the video making a similar false claim.
Click here to view the tweet.
The video is also doing rounds on Facebook with the same false claim.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a related keyword search to find out news reports covering the incident but found none corroborating the communal claim.
On the other hand, we found a report published by inshorts on July 5, 2023, about the incident stating that Gurugram police refuted the viral communal claim.
Taking a cue from this, we found some tweets by the official handle of Gurugram police from July 5, 2023, where they debunked the viral claim about the death of the trans person.
Gurugram police, tweeted, "A message is going viral on social media claiming that a Bangladeshi Muslim hanged a transperson after brutally killing her in Taliban style in Dharmapuri Sector-108. This is untrue."
Click here to view the tweet.
The police also added saying, "The incident took place on July 3, 2023, when a friend of a trans person named Priya, living in the Rajendra Park area of the police station, had informed the police that Priya had committed suicide due to illness. An action under 174 CrPC has been taken by Rajendra Park Police Station regarding the matter. The claim of killing is untrue."
For further clarification, we reached out to Rajendra Park Police Station in Gurugram about the incident. Inspector Pankaj confirmed the same to BOOM saying, “It is a case of suicide. She is a transperson, her name is Priya. She was troubled by her illness. Her post-mortem has also been done. This is not a case of murder by a Bangladeshi Muslim."
BOOM also contacted Gurugram West Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Shiv Archan and shared the viral video with him. He confirmed to BOOM that the incident took place in his area but the claim being made with the video is completely false.
“There is no Muslim angle in this incident. It is only a case of suicide. We are tracking those social media users who are giving communal colour to the incident,” Gurugram West ACP Shiv Archan said.